During a reported routine patrol on westbound Interstate 30 Tuesday morning, a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper stopped a 2021 Ford Escape for alleged speeding, 80 miles per hour in a 75-mph zone. The trooper reported conflicting stories from the passenger and driver regarding their road trip from Indianapolis, Ind. to Killeen.
After an alleged refusal of a consent search, a K-9 unit was brought to the scene, which gave an alleged positive alert. Inside the vehicle, the trooper alleged in his report finding a pistol “between the driver seat and the center console. A marijuana cigarette was found in the ash tray,” the report read.
After the driver, a 33-year-old Indianapolis, Ind. man, was taken to Hopkins County jail, the trooper reported he “found a plastic bag containing a green leafy substance believed to be marijuana” in his patrol unit, he wrote in the report.
“After watching the camera [footage] inside my vehicle, I confirmed that [the man] tried to disarm [sic] the marijuana inside of his pocket and placed [it] between my driver seat and the center console,” the trooper wrote.
The trooper alleged also in his report the man tried to hide the marijuana so that it would be difficult to find “unless you truly look between the seats of the vehicle,” he wrote.
The man was arrested on charges of unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, possession of marijuana, less then 2 ounces, and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.